Kevin Brady targets Obamacare's employer mandate

On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that he wants to delay or even repeal the Obamacare's employer mandate. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The head of the House Ways and Means Committee hopes to delay or repeal Obamacare’s employer mandate, which requires large employers to provide health insurance.

The move comes after Republicans effectively killed the individual mandate that everyone have insurance by including a repeal of the mandate's penalties in tax legislation passed in December. Efforts to fully repeal Obamacare have stalled for 2018.

However, lawmakers want to take on the employer mandate this year.

“I would like to see us make progress there,” Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Tuesday. “We want to make sure our businesses are not caught up in fines or punitive efforts.”

Brady said ideally, Congress would repeal or delay the mandate from going into effect instead of pursuing changes.

The employer mandate requires any company with 100 or more full-time employees to provide health insurance.

The Internal Revenue Service notified thousands of businesses last year that they retroactively owe penalties for not abiding by the mandate as far back as 2015, the year it went into effect.

Brady said he is hoping to not only delay it, but also make the delay retroactive so companies don't owe any penalties.

Other Obamacare taxes and penalties have already been delayed. The law’s medical device and insurer taxes, as well as a tax on high-cost health plans, were delayed in a short-term budget deal last month.